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Humans don't learn the grammar by "understanding the theory". Humans learn the grammar by using the language repeatedly.

But a book on theory can be mass produced and sold to everyone who wants to learn a language. Can't bottle and mass produce an actual experience of using the language for years. So theory it is.

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That's a big generalization. Do you have any data to back up that first claim?

For German, knowing grammatical cases {Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive} has been helpful as an on-ramp to using the language repeatedly correctly.

Note the term you're reaching for: "on-ramp". Even in your own experience, theory is a crutch.

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